Attributing the rank due to the state's sustained reform initiatives in the past 11 months creating an environment for entrepreneurship and job growth, an official release said Jharkhand has also become the first state in terms of reforms initiated in the realm of labour legislation.

"To learn and collect information about Jharkhand's effort (in labour reforms), a World Bank team is likely to visit Jharkhand in the third week of December," the release said here today. Jharkhand, which had been ranked 29th last year, in September ranked third after Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh in "ease of doing business" by a World Bank report.

The second achievement within three months came due to introduction of various changes ranging from self-certification, single annual return for 14 labour laws to single inspection, with mandatory submission of reports within a mandated 72 hours, the release said.

These efforts took Jharkhand's compliance rate to 72 per cent as against the national average of 19.45 per cent. Several states were keen to learn and emulate labour reforms adopted by Jharkhand, the release said.